Stephanie Selesnick, President of International Trade Information, Inc. Recently, I was in charge of coordinating the booths for clients at two exhibitions here in the United States. The process was painful. One of the worst parts was navigating exhibitor manuals. Both (from different companies) were not intuitive and technologically challenging. In other words, it was difficult to find, then order booth display items, etc. Compare that with TripAdvisor.com, who makes the experience easy. You [...]

Kai Hattendorf, UFI CEO/ MD. As every year, the UFI team has used our association’s Global Congress as well as many separate conversations all around the world to isolate and identify the core themes that the UFI team feels will impact the global exhibition industry in 2019. So today, let me share with you “UFI’s 5 trends to watch in 2019”: Written by Kai Hattendorf, UFI CEO/ MD. Shifting trade patterns and a jittery global economy Amidst a climate of political tension, protectionism and fals [...]

Mary Larkin, UFI Incoming President. For those of you who may have missed it, Diversified’s Mary Larkin joined the UFI presidential trio at UFI’s annual congress in St Petersburg earlier this month. As part of her new role, Larkin will work on increasing the number of women in leadership positions within the global exhibition industry. Her newfound platform to advocate gender equality and diversity is underpinned by a call for action. Consider the Thursday afternoon panel discussion in St Pete [...]

Kai Hattendorf, UFI MD/CEO. It’s that time of year when many of you will be booking your trips to the upcoming UFI Global Congress. The UFI team is busy getting ready for what is sure to be another memorable meeting. (If you still need to register, just click here). After Shanghai in 2016 and Johannesburg in 2017, our industry’s global annual gathering will take place in St. Petersburg (Russia). It’s been a memorable year for our industry, so there are many issues to discuss – from M&A to [...]

Stephan Forseilles, Head of Technology and Digital Transformation, Easyfairs. Written by Stephan Forseilles When Swapcard's Ilan Goren asked me if I'd be interested in contributing an article to their Blog on "What event engagement tech should /could do for event organizers to survive and thrive in the digital age", I jumped on the occasion. It's not everyday that you can have such a "blue sky" approach to the question. The first remark that often comes up in discussions about the future of th [...]

Ana Maria Arango, UFI Latam Regional Manager talks about the state of the exhibition industry in the Latin American region. Interview by Nick Dugdale-Moore. Ana Maria, 18 - 19 September, UFI will be organising its first LATAM Regional Conference in Mexico. Can you tell us something more about the region and the exhibition industry market share/revenue? Latin America is a very diverse continent, not only in terms of the evolution of the exhibition industry, but in the diversity of their exhibitio [...]

Corrado Peraboni, UFI President 2018. UFI has been present in Latin America for quite some time now – our first member from the region, Corferias, joined us back in 1956 and hosted the Global Congress in Bogota in 1975, and then again in 2014. We now have 42 members in the region from eight different countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador and Mexico. While this covers the mostimportant exhibition markets, there are still several countries missing, and we hope [...]

Christian Druart, Secretary of the UFI Sustainable Development Committee, talks about the sustainability in the exhibition industry, presenting the UFI Forum on Sustainable Development, taking place in Orlando, (USA), from 6 to 7 August 2018. Interview by Monika Fourneaux Ceskova This year’s theme of the forum is “engagement, collaboration and measurement”. How would you describe these three drivers? As you know, sustainability isn’t exactly a new topic in the event industry, however, if we ar [...]

Corrado Peraboni, UFI President It was wonderful to see so many of you earlier this month in Verona at our annual European Conference, especially as it took place in my home country Italy. Thank you again to my friends and colleagues at Veronafiere for hosting us so graciously, and to all our speakers for sharing your insights! During one of the breaks, I took a moment to watch the UFI team’s video showcasing some of the highlights and activities from last year’s Global Exhibition Day ( [...]

Sophie Hackford, the keynote speaker Over 220 delegates from 35 countries gathered at the European Conference 2018 in Verona (Italy). Speakers and delegates discussed the challenge of how to future-proof exhibitions on the main conference stage and in breakout sessions over the course of two days. As one participant put it on Twitter: “To future-proof exhibitions, first listen to the future.” This was the theme behind the opening session with keynote speaker Sophie Hackford, Futurist and Resea [...]